no settling for occupation, palestine 2010

Under the kind of Occupation that Palestinians have been for decades there is literally no room for manoeuvre, very few forms of resistance. A new P.A. law banning the sale of Settlement produce -and Palestinians to work in the Settlements by 2011- is a difficult yet undeniable achievement. The difficulty is that working within these illegal zones [42% of the ‘west bank’ and rising] has been a scarce source of income for those imprisoned in the Palestinian hills.

There are many things wrong with the P.A., here is one thing they’ve got right. My own recent realisation that most of what is possible to eat in occupied Palestine is prison food -controlled/supplied by the Occupation- was mortifying and underscores why this ban is a difficult one to make and sustain. Outside occupied Palestine, it’s the easiest thing in the world to boycott the fruits of this uniquely chronic and brutal Occupation. It’s dead simple; do you want to be sustained by crimes against your -or your children’s- own humanity?

This is a map of just a few of the Settlements -each of which is in breach of International law- and some of the brands, in Arabic. Ahava is one easy brand/’lifestylechoice’ to avoid if, that is, you’re discomforted by ongoing ethnic cleansing via house demolitions in the Jordan Valley and Negev or ongoing ‘transfer’/expulsion of Palestinians from Jerusalem [see Adalah’s site & a July update]; over 4000 people transferred in this way in 2008 alone [see here]. Refusing to nurture your complexion with the muck of Occupation does not make you somehow racist; don’t listen to your ‘friends’.

Have the courage to think hard about it and please look at this Boycott site. See how easy it is for you and I to no longer actively finance Occupation, to do something very small and very large which has the rare quality of being right today and right forever. Comparisons to apartheid South Africa are obvious and poignant, but underplays it somewhat! I’ll avoid making the only real analogy possible, not least out of respect for the uniqueness of this ongoing nakba.

Here is an article about the campaign itself from The National, which you can update via Maan and elsewhere. The Israeli response reveals the scale of their nobility and a robust confidence in their possession of justice! In short they want to criminalise anyone who supports the boycott of Settlement produce in word or deed. That means you!